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Today’s links come from a couple of the race-focused blogs I check. Some are from Colorlines, while others were found on Racialicious. Enjoy.

Recently, LAUSD agreed to stop the “first hired, first fired” practices that make it difficult for lower-income schools to retain their teachers in the face of major, state-wide layoffs. This is because new teachers are usually those who get fired first, and are also more likely to be working in lower-income school districts. While this agreement is good for the kids who might otherwise lose their new teachers, while upper-class kids get to keep their seniority-protected teachers, it’s also harmful to those teachers who have been working long enough to deserve to keep their jobs. The situation has not been fully resolved, and many are saying that teachers’ unions need to find new ways to adapt to the education crisis in this country.

Lax Gun Control Laws Lead to More Crime, says Colorlines. Well, NO KIDDING. See my post about the book Lethal Logic which I read this summer. Anyway, it seems (not surprisingly) that stricter gun control laws, when not enforced correctly, disproportionately affect racial minorities. So basically, we need to get guns off the streets without being racists. That doesn’t sound that hard. Then again, this is the United States.

Finally, former inmates are having more difficulty than ever finding work in this job market. That’s because having been imprisoned is a difficult reputation to escape, and makes employers less likely to hire someone. Black men are finding it especially difficult to get a job after being released from prison. This trend speaks to our country’s general inability to reincorporate people into society after they’ve been incarcerated, which is a really serious problem considering how many people end up in the prison system every year.

A piece from Change.org examining how this country has, slowly but surely, stripped away women’s rights over the course of the past year. You’d think, as we move forward in time, we’d become more progressive. But it seems like America putting it in reverse and taking us back to a time before Roe v. Wade.

Related to the post above, this is one of the consequences of limited/no access to abortion in certain parts of the United States.

Hey everyone! I started this entry on Labor Day, which is why the first link references the holiday. These links are all very pertinent, regardless. ❤

Today is Labor Day, and even though my college doesn’t have the day off (OH THE HORROR), I’m trying to spend some time thinking about labor practices int the United States. After all, Labor Day isn’t just a day to sit around and do nothing. It could be a day to work for better work conditions. Colorlines talks about important workplace reforms that everyone should be thinking about this Labor Day.

Dan Savage links to (and quotes) an article about the impatience of the American people and our unwillingness to understand that solutions to pervasive societal problems will take time to implement. That’s not to say, however, that there aren’t some problems which have quick solutions, or which deserve immediate attention because of the amount of time they’ve been ignored.

You know all that stuff about reintegrating people into society after they’ve served time in jail? Well it’s all talk unless you’re working to do things like “ban the box,” which prevents employers from asking applicants about their criminal records. How is someone supposed to reintegrate into society if they can’t get a job?

Feministe has cross-posted a series of three posts from the Global Maternal Health Conference in New Delhi. Here are one, two (about how important context is for maternal health) and three (about outpatient abortion services).

Kentucky lawyer is cited for contempt for refusing to divulge the name of her client whose status as a minor compels her to seek permission from her parents or the court before obtaining an abortion. The young girl did not want her name given in court, and the law states that she had the right for it to remain private. Rock on, KY lawyer, rock on.

The word “abortion” is googled more in conservative areas where access to the procedure is much more restricted. Interesting. Thoughts?
Coming at you from Feministe, which rocks my world all the time: Marginalized folks shouldn’t always have to be “the bigger persons” Too true. Most of the time, I try not to be a huge asshole when calling people out, I try to explain coherently why whatever has been done or said bothers me, and I try to be calm. At Grinnell, that’s been working really well, and people are pretty much always down to hear what I say and respect my feelings about subjects, words, etc. But sometimes that doesn’t work. And sometimes, I just don’t care how “sensitive” or “overreactive” I’m being. The other night, a guy friend (who actually isn’t really a friend anymore) made a rape joke, and I just went off on him. Two of my girlfriends were there with me, and I know there were a little taken aback by how upset I got, but I really couldn’t give less of a shit. I’m gonna get angry sometimes, and I sure as hell hope (for your sake) that it’s not at you.

An important reminder of just how damaging anti-immigrant rhetoric is: “There’s a sinister logic to it: Latina women aren’t mothers; they drop babies. Latino fathers don’t support their families; they steal jobs. So the undocumented are blurred into a faceless horde that threatens to crowd out deserving U.S. citizens. This rubric teaches “real Americans” that their status must be vigilantly guarded, because citizenship isn’t a birthright, but a privilege, reserved for real people.”

In the United States, when we hear racism, we think of white people discriminating against black people. That’s a reasonable jump, as most of the racism in the U.S. is based on a history of people with white skin enslaving Africans. Of course, racism affects all people of color, including (but not limited to) Indians, Native Americans, Latin@s, etc. I think it’s critical to remember, however, that racism exists all over the world, not just in Western majority-white countries. Here is a good example of the breadth and variety of racism across the world.

I’ve definitely been guilty of wondering why someone would spend their money on luxuries I consider frivolous, like super nice cars, if they’re strapped for cash and maybe don’t have enough money to buy food for the week. But this post makes me understand how classist that kind of thinking is.